Look, we're good at DE with Ware and Spencer, the only question on the DL that I have is at DT. Ratliff is a prototypical 3-tech, so if he stays healthy, he will be better than he ever was as a 34 NT, where he excelled despite not fitting that position at all. Hatcher can also play that spot and is a very solid player. That leaves the 1 tech DT and really, there are a number of guys that can play that spot.

I wanted us to draft Sheldon Richardson because I loved the player and he would be the heir apparent to Ratliff... but the truth is we are ok on the DL. Good at DE and the 3T and solid at the 1T.

As for the OL, we used our first round pick on the best center in the draft who will be an anchor in the middle for the next decade. We also will likely sign at least 1 more OL in free agency. That will be two fifths of the OL changed, plus we will have Costa back healthy and Leary with a year under his belt.

If I had to guess right now, I'd say that both lines will be improved and fine this year.

So then after nabbing Frederick in round 1, it is just a matter of the front office getting the best available players in the draft and maximizing this chance to add talent to the roster. That they did. Webb and Wilcox are very good DB's to add to Carr, Claiborne, Johnson, Church and Scandrick. I've thought for a long time that Webb would be an ideal slot corner but I didn't think there was a chance we would get him.

Escobar is one of the most natural pass catchers I've seen in a long time and he will catch a lot of balls as a rookie, mark my words. Williams will be a starting WR sooner rather than later and was extreme value in round 3.

Holloman is a likely eventual starter at SLB in round 6 and Randle might give Murray a run for his money at RB. At the very least I wont be holding my breath every time Murray gets up slowly because we have a guy just as good behind him now.

This draft did a whole lot to help the Cowboys and if you can't see that, then I really don't know what to tell you.

To the Original poster, I feel the same way. We needed big men on both sides of the ball. Everyone knew this. This draft was loaded with them too, its like the football Gods were answering our prayers.

Oh, well what to murderer's row that is. A draft pick couldn't possibly muscle in there.

Ratliff has an injury history and tends to wear down by the end of the year. Hatcher has never played DT and also has an injury history. Lissimore is an overachieving nice player, but is not a starter. Price already washed out on other clubs.

Thank you Risen, I don't post much but I'm here everyday. I don't agree with you all the time, but thank you for writing the things that I'd like to say!

Ratliff has an injury history and tends to wear down by the end of the year. Hatcher has never played DT and also has an injury history. Lissimore is an overachieving nice player, but is not a starter. Price already washed out on other clubs.

Thank you Risen, I don't post much but I'm here everyday. I don't agree with you all the time, but thank you for writing the things that I'd like to say!

If we were willing to take Frederick we could've traded down and figured out a way to get 3 2nd's and come away with Frederick, Winters, and Logan, and probably still got Randle.

We're never going to be able to impose our will on teams through the air.

In theory I agree with you, however, reality proves this statement wrong. The NFL is different now. Teams win through the air now. Green Bay, New Orleans, New England, Atlanta, etc. Even former smash-mouth teams like Pittsburgh and Baltimore thrown the ball all over the field now. I also like a good balanced offense, but that's not how most teams operate these days.

Look, we're good at DE with Ware and Spencer, the only question on the DL that I have is at DT. Ratliff is a prototypical 3-tech, so if he stays healthy, he will be better than he ever was as a 34 NT, where he excelled despite not fitting that position at all. Hatcher can also play that spot and is a very solid player. That leaves the 1 tech DT and really, there are a number of guys that can play that spot.

I wanted us to draft Sheldon Richardson because I loved the player and he would be the heir apparent to Ratliff... but the truth is we are ok on the DL. Good at DE and the 3T and solid at the 1T.

As for the OL, we used our first round pick on the best center in the draft who will be an anchor in the middle for the next decade. We also will likely sign at least 1 more OL in free agency. That will be two fifths of the OL changed, plus we will have Costa back healthy and Leary with a year under his belt.

If I had to guess right now, I'd say that both lines will be improved and fine this year.

So then after nabbing Frederick in round 1, it is just a matter of the front office getting the best available players in the draft and maximizing this chance to add talent to the roster. That they did. Webb and Wilcox are very good DB's to add to Carr, Claiborne, Johnson, Church and Scandrick. I've thought for a long time that Webb would be an ideal slot corner but I didn't think there was a chance we would get him.

Escobar is one of the most natural pass catchers I've seen in a long time and he will catch a lot of balls as a rookie, mark my words. Williams will be a starting WR sooner rather than later and was extreme value in round 3.

Holloman is a likely eventual starter at SLB in round 6 and Randle might give Murray a run for his money at RB. At the very least I wont be holding my breath every time Murray gets up slowly because we have a guy just as good behind him now.

This draft did a whole lot to help the Cowboys and if you can't see that, then I really don't know what to tell you.

Do yourself a favor. Don't try to use good facts and logic on this board.

Quote:
Originally Posted by big dog cowboyIt cracks me up people are complaining about us not drafting any DL's when Jerry came out and said we were already good there.

Ratmatt;5070154 said:

It's because Jerry said it.Do you really trust what Jerry says?

If you listen to Jerry you can often hear what he's saying clearly. If you interpret what he's saying thru a filter then you may get more confused. There are times when I can tell you I tune him out. Other times I really listen hard. Not sure I have a recipe for how to do that. I guess some of it comes from listening to him since 89. But he often will tell you what he's thinking and where we're headed; in fact too much so for me

He's not the only one saying we were decent along the DL. You can look at the roster and get an idea yourself. Will we be ok there? Don't know but we have a reasonable amt of talent there. We will need some unknowns to step up some esp if we have too many injuries.

Not saying we couldn't use more help. We just needed it elsewhere as much or more. And some of it was just what was available when we were ready to pick. Frederick wasn't there first choice just their first choice of what was available.

Many here and elsewhere said we would go after RB, CB, S, WR and OL. I was a little surprised by the TE pick but only momentarily and I recognized the pick immediately.

I don't disagree we could have used another OL or two but you can only do so much in one draft esp when you have other significant holes. The answer to that is we still could have gone after top OL with the second and third pick. Yes, but you would have missed out on two dynamic players for the offense. And the offense was the chief architect for our failure last year although the D wasn't far behind. But the D was decimated by injuries. So they likely thought the D would be good for 17-20 pts/game this year with the additions it got.

The offense despite the poor OL play still only gave up 36 or 37 sacks last year. And thru the first 13-14 games I reviewed so far only the Wash game was an OL disaster all 4 qtrs. And we were still able to come back in that game but couldn't hold them defensively. We were able to throw the ball pretty well although we ran it poorly all year. So addressing the center of the line via the draft and with the chance to address it further with veteran acquisition then we still have a chance to address RT. They may have more confidence in Parnell/Free's ability to play there and possibly Livings/??? to play LG than many here do; substantially. The odds aren't that long for someone to step up from the unknowns either.

They certainly aren't screaming we have to have another OL or three via speech or actions are they?

All anyone heard going in was how deep this draft was at OL and DL, yet we drafted just one. Is it that shocking some are not pleased by that?

The fact that the team values a 2nd or 3rd TE higher than OL or DL is part of why the season will probably end the same way it has in recent memory - Romo running for his life or making stupid mistakes due to being rattled by pressure.

It is mind boggling. All we heard when free agency started was how we were going to fix the lines in the draft because we had no FA cash. I understand we needed a Center, a TE, a CB that could replace Scandricks ridiculous contract, a 3rd WR that isn't 5 foot 2, I like the safety who is a natural if he is that good that fast, a RB that could start when Murray missed 10 games and with Wilber (bust) and Albright moving to DE we needed LB help, so I am good with the guys we took, but there were no bigger needs than Guard, Tackle and D-tackle, and so far we are 0 for 3. All the receivers and TE's and running backs in the world are useless if Tony is on his back.

coult44;5069966 said:

If anyone would have told me that the goal of JJ, Red,the rest of our scouting department, and front office was to have: 9 Defensive Backs, 2 Tight Ends, 3 WR's, 5 LB's, 4 RB's, and that we would have got more new Quarterbacks and Kickers than we did Offensive and Defensive linemen at the end of this years draft and 1st day of UDFA, I would have told you that you should check yourself into a mental hospital....In fact, I believe you would have been laughed off of this board for uttering such nonsense..We must have the best and be the deepest group of OL and DL in the NFL that we do not need to draft or sign anymore than one guy that plays in the trenches. I guess we should feel confident that our staff thinks we need more guys to back up Jason Witten and Miles Austin than we do to protect Tony Romo. Our new DC must have convinced JJ and Red that we needed to push Carr and MO, with 8 new faces at CB. He also is fine with where we are at our strongest position on the team by bringing in a small school guy who did a magic trick and started playing safety last year. Oh wait, I forgot about perennial pro-bowler Will Allen who's still looking for all that potential somewhere in him...

Look guys, I knew we didn't have any money going into the off season. I'll blame that on the commish for that five million dollar fine (choke), and give the GM a pass on his great understanding of how the cap actually works..BUTTTTT, can any of you honestly say that you expected this draft and off season to go down like this??? Even if you are one of the guys who are being positive about the draft, can you really be happy and satisfied with what we have done to try to improve the weakest links of our team?
We had to at least try to fix the OL and S spots. And, we needed to add to our old and deteriorating DL. This has been a very disappointing week and continuation of our off season for sure...Look up at the teams we are chasing in the NFC alone, have we done anything to get closer to them? Some of them have got even better during the past three months than they were last year...While we have, wellllllllllllllll... I don't know!!!!!